The invention relates to an aerial platform for a wind turbine with a tower and rotor blades arranged on the tower.
For maintenance of a wind turbine it is necessary to be able to inspect the wind turbine at regular intervals and optionally be able to carry out maintenance work. It is also necessary here for the rotor blades to be thoroughly inspected, for instance for damage and cracks. Because a wind turbine can be tens of meters up to even more than a hundred meters high, usual aerial platforms such as scissor lifts, telescopic boom lifts or articulating boom lifts cannot be used.
Special aerial platforms have therefore been developed for wind turbines. In the case of such aerial platforms a number of cables are for instance attached to the nacelle of the wind turbine, along which a lift cradle is hoisted upward.
The lift cradle supports here against the tower of the wind turbine.
The drawback is however that the shape of the lift cradle hereby depends on the shape of the tower.
In addition, the position of the rotor blades relative to the tower can vary and differ per type of wind turbine. This will also affect the shape of the lift cradle.
Finally, a system is known, at least on paper, wherein cables hang downward from the top of the wind turbine and are fixed in the ground by means of ground anchors.
The lift cradle is hoisted upward along these cables and does not support here against the tower of the wind turbine. The drawback of this system is that it takes a great deal of time to set up this variant (assembly and disassembly times are greatly reduced).
It is also the case that an inspection and maintenance crew is not normally permitted to arrange ground anchors in the ground, particularly because high-voltage cables are located around a wind turbine.
In addition, it may even be physically impossible to arrange ground anchors in the often rocky ground surface.